Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 500, 518Wh Outdoor
Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 500, 518Wh Outdoor Backup Mobile Lithium Battery Pack with 230V/500W AC Outlet for holiday RV Camping, Outdoor Adventure, Emergency
FAQ
Q1: What devices can Explorer 500 power?
A: Please note that the AC output port can only charge/power devices that operate at less than total 500 Watt.
Q2: How to know the working times for my device? Why does the duration of some devices deviate from the actual usage data?
A: Working time = 518Wh* 0.85 / operating power of your device. The duration of our equipment is based on laboratory data, and the duration of specific equipment usage may vary.
Q3: Does Explorer 500 include a built-in MPPT controller?
A: All Jackery power stations have a built-in MPPT controller.
Note:
Lithium batteries with a watt-hour output greater than 160 WH are generally prohibited from being carried on the plane, either as hand luggage or checked luggage. Please contact your airline for more information. Thank you for your understanding and support.
Package:
- 1*Jackery Explorer 500 Portable Power Station (518Wh Portable Power Station)
- 1*AC Adapter
- 1* Car Charger Cable
SPECIFICATIONS
| Capacity: | 518Wh (24Ah, 21.6V) |
| 1*AC Output: | 1*230V, 500W (1000W peak) |
| Car Port: | DC 12V, 10A |
| 3*USB-A port: | 5V, 2.4A |
| 2*6.5mm*1.4mm DC outputs: | 12V, 7A( for DIY) |
| Input: | 8mm DC, 12V~30V (100W Max) |
| Weight: | 13.3lb |
| Dimension： | 11.84×7.59×9.20in |
 |  |  |  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone | 53 Charges | 100 Charges | ✓ | 24 Charges | 53 Charges | 100 Charges |
| Laptop | 7 Charges | 12.5 Charges | / | 3-4 Charges | 7 Charges | 12.5 Charges |
| Led Light(5W) | 12H/45H | 76H | / | 6H/21H | 12H/45H | 76H |
| CPAP(DC Outlet) | 23H-40H | 55H-78H | / | / | 23H-40H | 55H-78H |
| Mini cooler(60W) | 37H | 66H | / | 18H | 37H | 66H |
| TV(60W) | 7.5H | 14H | / | 3H | 7.5H | 14H |
| Blender(300W) | 6H | 13H | / | / | 6H | 13H |
| Ice Shaver(700W) | / | 3.5H | / | / | / | 3.5H |
| Electric Grill(900W) | / | 50 Mins | / | / | / | 50 Mins |
| Electric Pressure Cooker(1000W) | / | 45 Mins | / | / | / | 45 Mins |
| Weight: | 6 kg |
| Colour: | Green,Red |
| Batteries Included: | Lithium |
| Manufacture: | Jackery |
This is a fantastic station! Last a lot longer than suggested. I was powering an Outsunny 50l fridge, Sonos Move and various iPads and iPhones. Lasted 48 hours on our camping trip last weekend. Totally off grid, going to get the solar panels next to extend this. Highly recommend!
Easy to use straight out of the box. I received it on the Wednesday but didn’t have time to unpack it and charge it up until Friday. Friday evening we had a major power outage in my area for 5-6 hours (the first in 5 years living here) and I was sooo thankful for this little device which powered a light and my phone with plenty of spare capacity, making my evening a little more normal until power was restored in the middle of the nigh
With all this talk of power cuts coming this winter I decided to invest in one of these. Its pretty heavy so I wouldn’t really say it’s portable. The 200w version would be better if you plan to take it camping or on a hike. But this runs my TV, large speaker and a bright lamp for over 10 hours. And its small enough to fit in a backpack so you can charge it at work
I bought this principally as an insurance against power cuts this winter.
I live in an all-electric house so need some sort of backup and this Jackery power supply is an ideal solution.
It’s compact, portable and sturdy. It has a 250V pure sine wave outlet, a 12V 10A outlet and three USB charger sockets.
This means I can charge the smart phone, power the router, laptop and TV and boil a 12V kettle. (I also have a Camping Gaz single burner stove for hot food!)
To charge it you simply plug in the mains adapter and leave it for a few hours. It will hold its charge for months but the manufacturer’s recommend that you use it periodically and charge every three months if it’s not in regular use.
I was going to buy the 200 watt version but Amazon had the 500 watt model on offer with the price reduced by 80.
The only downside is that the 250V outlet is very close to the bottom of the panel, making access a bit difficult. Not really a problem if you stand it on something.
This, as with other portable power stations, has a floating earth. This is a problem with my Worcester Bosch home gas boiler. This boiler will not fire without a permanent earth
This is not a criticism of this product, but needs to be understood if you are thinking of purchasing it for this reason as I was due to potential power cuts this winter.
I bought this, plus a folding solar panel charger to take to the Royal International Air Tattoo camping weekend. I was able to keep my phone charged up, inflate my air bed, Charge my laptop and run a 40watt cooler box but ONLY whilst it was connected to the solar charger. Had I had left it run the cooler box on its own it would have drained the battery after a few hours, but with bright sunlight shining on the solar panel, the input charge was around 55 watts and stopped the battery from dropping below 70%. I left it plugged into the solar panel whilst I went into RAF Fairford and when I came back several hours later, the Jackery was fully charged. I don’t do much camping but needless to say this will come in useful around the house for if I don’t want to use an extension cable. You have to use it fairly regularly or at least keep it charged up or you may shorten its life. For nearly 500 it’s a lot of money but one bloke I was talking to was very impressed at how light it was compared to a conventional leisure battery. Don’t waste your money on those cheap power packs that have a tyre pump, a jump starter and a mains and USB socket because they’re useless. This is worth every penny.
Great backup powerbank.
Great quality power bank which allows me to keep my motorcycle batteries topped up as I haven’t got and electricity in my garage.
More powerful versions available but this is perfect for my needs.
USB sockets also included.
Can be charged at home or in a vehicle, as a 12v lead is included.
Very easy to use.
Brilliant piece of ki
I bought this for my daughters 21st present, she wanted to go camping before climbing Munro’s but need to charge her phone and have a hot blanket at nighttime. We had a storm that made us loose electricity for a couple of days, the jackery kept all our tech charged and still had 60% charge when the electricity came back on. I’m buying myself one.
Good solid well made unit.
It’s lighter than I expected, looks good, fan not as noisy as I expected and does all I need.
May buy the solar panels for it when I can afford.
I have now bought the solar panels, and they are well worth it, working in little sunlight and full sunlight. TBH I should have bought them first time! Sadly not waterproof but get them is my recommendation.
The UK power socket is badly incorporated.
I love the idea of this product but disappointed that I need to raise it off the floor to relieve stress on the UK kettle lead plugged into the vertically aligned socket. (Some, more flexible leads and plugs are do fit OK) Changing the orientation of the socket, to eliminate this issue would be so simple! Also, I’ve been unable to find out if the charger is compatible with class 1 appliances, ones that need an earth connection. The response from Jackery was uniformative and vague, frustrating. But I still like it and will use it.
I did a lot of homework before investing in the Jackery 500W. After reading many reviews of both Jackery and its main competitors, I opted for what I felt was the most reliable, most sturdy and most simple to use for a non-techie like me. It really is very straightforward with a minimum of buttons to confuse you and very clear instructions. Having watched some of the video reviews, it took no time at all to plug everything in and start charging up electronic devices. It arrived more than fifty per cent charged so I was able to do this without a problem and I was surprised by how quickly my devices charged and how little stored power they consumed.
I know next to nothing about electrics but my understanding is that you can run pretty much anything electronic from the Jackery provided it doesn’t draw more than 500W so that rules out larger appliances, domestic kettles, heaters etc. For those, you’d need a larger energy pack. I did agonise about whether to go for the bigger Jackery but decided that something that would charge phones, laptops, tablets etc was adequate for my needs. It comes with three USB (A) sockets, a 12v plug socket and a standard UK three pin socket – more than enough for my needs. You can also plug a USB device directly into the solar panel for charging. It doesn’t however come with USB (C) sockets so an adaptor is required (or a mains plug) for such use. The simple display panel shows the wattage coming in during charge and the wattage going out to devices.
The real gain for me was being able to match up the Jackery solar panel which again is so simple to use, my small grandson could work it out. There’s something very satisfying being able to charge a device up using the power of the sun – albeit one tiny appliance! All very relevant now too with the COP summit underway (At time of writing).
I daresay this will very quickly become outdated as the technology (and battery power) develops but it’s a start and the costs are coming down quickly. I daresay I’ll be shopping for the Jackery 500’s big brother very soon!
So Far So Good
I bought this along with the solar panel as I am sick og buying and fitting a new solar panel evertime I change my motorhome. Plus we also have a T5 VW which I use for overnights on my own with the pedal cycle, and it is great for recharging the laptop when the battery dies.
So far it has performed perfect and seems really easy to use and store away when it is charged. A quality piece of kit. I will update this review after around 6 months of use to see if anything has changed, or if the battery starts to have issues.
Brilliant bit of ki
We bought this for taking camping, and it has not disappointed!
We bought this with the solar panel to charge our devices and run a cool box on longer trips. It worked brilliantly and didn’t let us down in the slightest. We charged our phones, tablets and my sons switch and barely used 10% of the battery during a two night break.
Well worth the purchase and great value for money.
Amazing product. I work from my campervan and found it hard to run my laptop etc from my leisure battery using an inverter. It would drain the battery too quickly, so I bought a Jackert 500
With the solar panel plugged in, I can use my laptop and a few other smaller items all day without the charge dropping.
When I’ve used it without the solar panel, the charge only drops to about 88% after a full day’s work (10 hours or so).
I had a slight problem with my wall charger and customer support sent a new one out immediately which arrived the next day. I’m looking to buy a 1000 Jackery next year as I’m intending to live off grid for a while and I will have no hesitation in buying one.
Awesome company.
Am totally in love with this, it makes our trips an absolute breeze, no fighting to charge our phones as this has 3 usb sockets, a 9v cigarette socket plus a 3 pin UK plug socket.
We also opted for the portable solar panels and can’t believe how quick it juices up the Jackery whiles we just chill out around the van..
For anyone who is considering this for van life I couldn’t recommend this product moreit’s compact and very sturdy, has a great spotlight on it and a really sturdy handle for carrying so if you decide to pull over you can take it with you to that special spot and have electricity power anywhere at all. Worth every single penny
My fiance and I decided to temporarily convert a small van into a small campervan. Because it is temporary, we do not have an electrical system for all of our needs (lights and charging cables for phones, watches, laptops, tablets, etc.). We have been using the E500 every day for over 2 months now and the battery of the Jackery holds so well whilst supplying countless charges to our devices, we have only needed to charge the Jackery itself 3 times! It has a few different types of charging ports which makes it easy to use — we have not had to worry about having specific dongles, or cubes for our cables — just plug them straight into the Jackery. It is pretty robust as it has been bumped a few times and survived driving on rugged roads and still has not given us any issues. Also, because of its compact size, we are able to store it away pretty easily. Overall, it is definitely holding up to its name and makes our camping experience hassle-free. If you need to power multiple devices for a long period of time this Jackery E500 is for you.
When we initially purchased the Jackery E500, we didn’t think the solar panels would be ideal for our set up. However, since we have begun travelling, we think the solar panels would allow us to have a more self-sufficient style of camping. If you are planning to stay in the outdoors, the solar panels would be another good addition to your Jackery purchase.
As the review headline says, this is a superb portable power station. Can run multiple devices, recharges a 16″ MacBook Pro several times on a single charge, fan is fairly quiet when powering up and the unit is pretty light given it’s capability.
Also worth commenting on the AC socket orientation which has been mentioned by multiple reviewers. Yes it would be better if it was oriented differently to avoid bottom exiting cables being bent too much as to avoid this currently you need to lie the Jackery on it’s back, however, this really isn’t a major issue as it has no real impact on the operation and should in no way justify the removal of a star from a review.
As a quick additional note, the Jackery UK customer support team are great. I posted a negative review against another company that I tried to buy a unit from which never arrived. Unfortunately this review went against the product and not the other company but Jackery UK were extremely concerned about it thinking I had a bad experience and went out of their way to follow up to ensure I was happy. First rate service and I can totally recommend them.
Have owned one of these now for six weeks along with a Jackery 100W solar panel. Have used it four times on two to three day camping/fishing trips and have not needed to charge it or my devices from the mains in that time. I charge it outside on my patio from the panel and then on a trip as and when required.
It happily keeps two phones fully charged along with my camera battery (2000mAh) and my fishing bait-boat batteries (5200mAh). I also use my laptop for about an hour each day. The lowest point I have seen on the charge indicator is 86%.
As the weather has been good on my trips I have kept the solar panel hooked up for about 12hrs per day moving it around to follow the sun every couple of hours. In strong sunshine I get 85W charging but even with full cloud between 10-15W.
The only issue I have is with the location of the 3-pin UK plug socket. When you plug in a device you have to place the power unit on a table or something to raise it from the ground. This is because the wire on a UK plug goes down from the plug socket and there isn’t enough clearance to prevent the wire being kinked. The socket could be turned sideways or upside down to prevent this!
So far this has proved to be a great extra piece of equipment to take with us on out travels in the motorhome or campervan. We used to struggle on cloudy days to get full charge from our motorhome solar and that meant we couldnt always charge all the cameras, laptop, Drones etc. This hasn’t failed us yet, with their solar panel it even charges the generator on cloudy days and so far doesn’t seem to struggle using all types of equipment. Shame the cost of both generator and panel is so high, but highly recommended from us
When I received this “power station” I set up a little test partly to check it out and partly to see what it was capable of. I charged it to 100%, plugged a smart plug with energy monitoring into it and ran my desktop computer off it until it was down to 0%. The invertor uses about 7 watts and the computer ran for about 3 to 4 hours. The smart plug said I had used 520 watts! Now add another 20 watts for the invertor usage which isn’t recorded on the plug, that’s around 540 watts of power from this 518 watt power station. This is amazing because if this was many other companies, they would claim this was a 600 watt hour power station at least! Apparently I am not the only person to discover this generous and accurate advertising of the Jackery 500s capabilities, it must be applauded and hopefully it will continue.
So what is this thing? Basically it is a “fancy” leisure battery but with less power than a high end leisure battery, however it is lithium. You don’t need an inverter, because it has one built in. You don’t need a solar controller, if you want to charge it that way, because it has one built in. You don’t need to worry about only using around 50% of the battery maximum, in case it gets damaged, as can happen with “normal” leisure batteries, you can take this down to 0% if you want although it isn’t recommended.
You can plug anything you like in to the 3 pin plug as long as it doesn’t draw more than 500 watts and doesn’t surge more than 1000 watts. You can plug any 12 volt device into the cigarette lighter socket up to 10 amps. I wouldn’t worry about the smaller DC outputs as you will need an adapter to make them work. The three USB ports are nothing special and are one of the areas that could be improved for the next version. Quick Charge 3 would be nice, as would USB-C. These are available on the larger 1000W power station however. Having said that, I found that the USBs charged my phone up in a respectable time.
How I used it in the real world I went camping for a few days recently (May 2021), on a site with no electric hook up. This product is not suitable for hiking. I took my small 12v fridge (Alpicool C15), this power station and the Jackery Solar Saga 100 which is also excellent by the way. The Jackery 500 kept my fridge running the whole trip along with a few top ups with the solar panel, mainly in the evenings. The capacity of the Jackery 500 was more than enough to run my fridge for several days with minimal solar charging. If you get a few hours of decent sun in the mornings or evenings, you are unlikely to run out of power in a week. When I got home, I still had about 55% battery left and if I had been staying I would have probably been closer to 75 – 80% by the end of the day. I was also able to leave this running in the tent at night as it made no noise at all. The fan will kick in if you draw a high wattage from it though. I don’t know where that cut off is, but from my own experiences it will come on if you use around 100 watts or more. When I did my test, I found that my fridge used about 38% of the battery capacity in a 24 hour period in the house when the ambient temperature was 19C-20C.
This device is also very handy if you are prone to power cuts. This will power your TV and lights with a 4 gang extension lead for several hours no problem. If you don’t get too many power cuts, then it’s just handy to have in case you do.
So would I recommend this? Absolutely yes, if you have a need or a use for it, you can’t go wrong with Jackery. I did my research before buying this and Jackery appear to have made a solid product, it certainly feels solid, and they have second to none customer service (which I used when I had a query before delivery)
Please be aware, I bought this product with my own money and if this review has assisted you in making a choice either way, please click helpful. Thank you.
Perfect piece of equipme
Really pleased with this power station, initially purchased for my VW camper as it saved me all the hassle of installing a leisure battery. It powers all that we need in the vehicle, without having to run the engine to charge up your gadgets, if they are running low on power and need recharging. We even have a small 60w heater for colder nights and the ‘Jackery 500’ has never run out of power. We would like to save up and purchase the Jackery Solar Panel so we can go ‘wild camping’ in the future. Brilliant….. lightweight and easy to use!!
I was looking for ways to remotely power a small PA setup for an outdoor event. When looking into purchasing new kit, I always read reviews and gather as much information as possible before making my final choice.
Battery power station tech was new to me and I quickly discovered Jackery was a significant player. Even though there were cheaper competitor products on the market, I kept returning to the Jackery brand for the overall build, functionality and positive reviews. I didn’t have to wait long for the Jackery Explorer to arrive. Once fully charged, I plugged in my PA equipment and left it running for hours. I was amazed how much charge remained! With confidence, the Jackery was used along with my kit for the event and I was truly impressed how long the unit lasted, plus how portable and rugged the unit is. I made the right choice!
I’ve purchased the Jackery 500 & Solar panel. I’ve waited a few months to write this review as I wanted to give it a good test run & I have to say WOW what an amazing piece of kit, it is now something I can’t do without in my camper. So easy & straightforward to use, looks great with a simple clean design. Love the fact all the facilities are at the front, so makes it perfect to use in the camper as you can fit it into a specific place & no need to remove when I want to use it as everything is accessible on the front face, perfect. The solar panel is the best I have seen, it is very robust & solid, easy to set up using the back pull out panels to angle towards the sun & the the magnetic closure on the handle area is a bonus, love this feature. Overall I would rate the both items a 10/10 well impressed. Having used it for a few months I can highly recommend this product.
A must have for campervan life
We bought the Jackery power station along with the solar panel for our campervan. We often ‘wild camp’ so don’t have access to mains electricity. The van’s leisure battery won’t power the laptop, hair straighteners etc(essentials :-)) So the Jackery has proven invaluable. We charge it via the solar panel which is amazing even in the British weather!! Also top it up in the lighter socket while driving the van. Had zero problems charging it on the road. Worth its weight, which isn’t much, in gold. Would defo recommend.
The Jackery is amazing we also have the solar panel. It’s lightweight and provides excellent power. We used it for all the usual gadgets but also for our coffee maker and slow cooker and it didn’t let us down. Second plus is the solar panel fits in the windscreen of our van great on a windy day. The 230v plug socket could be slightly better positioned for the uk but not a big issue
Best camping accessory I’ve bought so far.
Great accessory for our campervan we have used the jackery on all our camping trips it’s great for charging all our devices and even using a 240volt tv with the inbuilt inverter. Easy to recharge with the car charging cable and also with a solar panel when we are onsite. Lightweight so can easily be moved around and has been incredibly useful for outside diy jobs so I don’t need to trail electrical extensions around.
We bought this as a result of recent power cut and plan to go on camping. The product arrived quickly and well packed, there were 50% battery level already so only took just over 3 hrs to charge to 100%. It comes with LED light can be use as torch which is handy. Tried to charge my phone which the speed is same as normal plug in charger. There is also safety button for each charging point. We store it in the car boot which doesn’t take much space at all. The instruction is very straightforward.
I regret being drawn into the promotion. There is nothing seriously wrong with the Jackery it’s just that there are better alternatives. The Allpowers is better all round but costs more than the promotion. When the promotion Is over there is no comparison. The Jackery is noisy, has no USB-C fast charging and the conversion to just a single 240V socket is downright awkward. If you buy this it will do the job. Just not as well. The wH rating is OK but quite a bit less that the competition. The other thing that bugs me is that the price in the US is far less than we have to pay even taking into account transport and conversion rates. Put simply, there is nothing that the Jackery does better than the 666W.
The product is fine. Always make sure you understand the difference between Ah and Wh. They can be confusing so do your homework. Many lithium batteries are measured in Ah where as the Jackery is measured in Wh which makes comparisons not straight forward. Charges surprisingly quickly and works well.
My biggest issue is that I’ve bought this and only when I look on the bottom I read it is Made in China. Now I find myself being part of a world who is funding the CCP genocide which is disappointing for me.
I ordered my Jackery Explorer 500 on the 19th March and it arrived today, so very impressed with the speed of delivery. I’ve unboxed it and got it plugged in and charging now. It looks and feels like a real quality product, robust and simple to use. The design is great! When i get around to testing it with the Jackery solar panel i’ll try and remember to update this review.
Great service from Jackery with my pre purchase queries, all answered very quickly, and simple to register the warranty on the Explorer as well. All in all one very happy customer.